Teach Your Children Well
by driftingstar
Summary: "Yuuri's quiet musings come to an abrupt halt when something odd catches his eye. He can see an indentation in the flowerbed up ahead and a frown spreads across his face. Someone or something has intruded upon his garden." Kid!Yuugo teleports himself to Academia years before the Heartland invasion and history is changed.
1. Lesson 1

Yuuri likes the gardens.

The lush green hedges and colourful array of flowers is a stark contrast against the cold grey stone that makes up the Academia's castle. Sprigs of lavender, vines of crawling ivy and shy morning glories greets him as he wanders down the path. Now that it's known to be one of his areas, hardly anyone else ever wanders in anymore. Yuuri doesn't mind not having the company; he feels more at ease here than anywhere else. A secret place just for him.

He has long since stopped questioning why the other children seemed to avoid him, their eyes bordering on fear as they scamper away. Although it's nice to not have to wait in line for anything, Yuuri had found the long stretches of solitude and silence rather dull. He observes them sometimes, all congregating together in little groups and talking up a storm. And laughing. The sight never fails to evoke a strange emptiness in his chest. A sort of hollowness that Yuuri likens to a hunger that can't be satisfied with food. It gnaws at him from time to time, souring his mood which makes the other children even more determined not to cross his path.

It doesn't bother Yuuri, not really. The feeling is so miniscule that it's a simple matter to ignore it. Bury it among the white noise of everyday life made up of dull lectures and physical training interspersed with long periods of quiet. He finds ways to amuse himself. He reads, learns the names of some the flowers and makes up the rest. He even fashions a deck with plant monsters as if to take a piece of this oasis with him when he has to return to the stone castle.

Yuuri's quiet musings come to an abrupt halt when something odd catches his eye. He can see an indentation in the flowerbed up ahead and a frown spreads across his face. The emerald grass shows clear signs of disturbance as he draws closer and he can feel his hackles rise. Someone or something has intruded upon his garden.

Anger surges as Yuuri stalks forward, magenta eyes narrowed in a glare that usually sends his classmates diving for cover. The sight of bent stems and other traces of damage only infuriates him further and his hands inch towards his duel disk in anticipation.

But Yuuri suddenly finds his vengeful thoughts dispersing when he happens upon an unexpected scene.

There is an unfamiliar boy lying amongst the daffodils. Messy golden bangs frame his face while the rest of his hair fans out beneath him in waves of blue. Like his classmates, his skin is the pale tinge of someone who suffers from a lack of sunlight but Yuuri knows he has never seen him before. He would have remembered; the boy looks almost painfully bright, vivid in a way that the dull spectres of his classmates never managed. If it wasn't for the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the serene expression on his face, Yuuri might have entertained the notion that he might have come across a corpse.

Annoyance fully replaced by curiosity, Yuuri tiptoes over for a closer look, taking care to avoid trodding on the flowers. The boy's clothing is odd; he's wearing a t-shirt that is too large and too yellow and far more worn than he had seen on anyone else. His confusion only increases when he notices that the grass around the boy is completely undisturbed. It was almost like he had dropped out of the sky!

"Curiouser and curiouser," he mutters to himself, echoing a half-remembered quote from a storybook. Although in this scenario, wouldn't this stranger be Alice? His lips quirk at the thought of the boy in a blue dress and white apron.

Now that he's mostly satisfied that the intruder wasn't one of his silly classmates come to pick a fight with him, Yuuri relaxes, sinking down in the grass next to the sleeping boy. It's a rare opportunity for him to be this close to another child his age and he wants to make the most of it. Up close and beneath the blond bangs that had mostly obscured his features, Yuuri is struck with a cord of recognition when he examines his face. There is something familiar about the curve of his nose and the general shape of his features, even though Yuuri maintains his stance that they have never met before. This strangeness prompts him to reach out and poke one of his rounded cheeks.

He watches in fascination as the boy's nose scrunches up at the disturbance as he reaches up unconsciously to bat his hands away. This only feeds his urge to poke him harder, and this time the boy lets out a whine that reminds him of a stirring kitten.

"Ngh… stoppit," the boy mumbles, dark brows knitting together harder under Yuuri's increasingly bolder attempts to pester him. It isn't until Yuuri pinches his chubby cheeks with both hands that he finally stirs.

Dazed eyes flutter open and for a moment Yuuri suddenly finds himself drowning in their blueness like he was gazing into an endless sky. The illusion ends when the boy blinks again, eyes clouding over in confusion and panic when Yuuri blinks back.

"Gaah!" the boy yelps, darting up and scampering away so quickly that Yuuri barely avoids their heads colliding. "You- what are you doing?!"

Yuuri can see traces of fear and confusion on the boy's face as he gazes up at him. Just like all the others. Yuuri surprises himself when a wave of disappointment washes over him. But he only has himself to blame. He had gotten so caught up in the mystery that he had let his imagination get the better of him. Visitors from other worlds indeed; chances are, this kid is probably another new entrant who hadn't known of the unspoken rules that no one is to encroach on Yuuri's territory. Given time, he will learn to fear and scorn from like everyone else.

And just like that, Yuuri's short-lived fun disappears, leaving him with more of the same hollowness.

"You're in my garden," he says stiffly, with a coldness in his eyes that a child his age should not possess. "And I would like you to leave." He considers activating his duel disk here and now to hammer the point in but he decides to give him a chance to run. He supposes he can be lenient since he had kept him amused for a few minutes.

However, the strange boy was no longer looking at him. He's gawking at his surroundings like he had never seen it before. Now that the boy is wide awake, that strange sense of familiarity grows stronger and Yuuri's eyes can't help but stray towards his face, fascinated by the varied range of emotions that flit across it. Bewilderment being the most prominent and curiosity being the next. There is still the same glint of underlying fear which actually doesn't seem to be directed at Yuuri. He's oddly irritated by that. He waits with undisguised impatience for his unwanted visitor to pull himself together. But the next words out of his mouth still don't make any sense.

"Where am I?" The boy's voice is pitched high with panic as he swivels back… and narrows those luminous eyes at Yuuri. He might have been offended if they weren't such a lovely colour. "Where's Rin? This isn't the facility!"

Yuuri blinks. Is he actually glaring at him? "What do you mean, 'Where are you'?" Yuuri crosses his arms and rolls his eyes at the absurdity of such a question. "I just told you. You're the one who snuck into my garden and flattened my daffodils!"

"Did not!" the kid argues, even though he is still very clearly sitting in the flower bed with golden petals scattered all over his clothes and hair. "I was sleeping in my bunk and I didn't sneak nowhere!"

"Didn't sneak any where," Yuuri mutters. "It's 'didn't sneak anywhere.'" At the boy's baffled look, he clarifies. "You're using a double negative. Nevermind." The kid looks even more confused and Yuuri wrinkles his nose in annoyance before gesturing down at the sorry looking grass. "If you didn't sneak in here, then why are you still sitting on my flowers?"

The blond boy blinks and looks down like he's only noticing for the first time. "That's 'cause… um. Huh?" He frowns hard and Yuuri can almost see the steam coming out of his ears with how hard he seems to be thinking. "Maybe," he mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe I was sleepwalking."

"Sleepwalking?" Yuuri echoes, hands going to his hips as he eyes him disbelievingly. Did this kid expect him to believe he could have snuck out of the castle and its labyrinth-like corridors, avoided several patrols of teachers and navigated himself to this spot all in his sleep ? He's either dealing with a genius or a complete idiot. "Well then, do you mind sleepwalking back out of here?"

Yuuri taps his foot impatiently, but the other boy doesn't seem to get the hint, taking his sweet time to yawn and stretch. Apparently satisfied with his own ridiculous explanation, the traces of fear seems to have fled his countenance. Yuuri finds it slightly annoying. He's now looking around with a hint of appreciation, now that his gaze isn't clouded by panic. "There's a lot of pretty flowers here! Rin will love it!" he exclaims, obviously impressed but Yuuri expression only goes flatter when it doesn't look like he's in a hurry to leave.

This leaves Yuuri with a conundrum. He's never had this much trouble getting anyone to run away from him before. Frowning, he reaches for his deck. The threat of being fed to Starve Venom ought to do the trick.

But before he could so much as activate it, his unwanted guest is suddenly right in his personal space and looking way too excited.

"Hey, hey! Is that a real duel disk?!" he exclaims just as Yuuri takes a step back in alarm. Those clear blue eyes are practically sparkling as they gaze down at his arm. "That's so cool! I've never seen one up close before! Does that mean you're a duelist?!"

"Of course I am," Yuuri says stiffly. He had meant for it to come out biting but he sounds confused, even to his own ears. "Everyone here is. That's why it's called Duel Academia." Sarcasm, however, seems to be entirely lost on him as the boy grins so brightly that Yuuri feels like he's staring into the sun.

"So cool," the boy squeals with enough enthusiasm to make Yuuri's head hurt as he starts to rummage around in his over-sized pockets. Eventually, he pulls out a well-worn deck holder. Unlike the rest of his shabby appearance, Yuuri is mildly impressed to see that the kid kept his cards in pristine condition as he holds them up. "I'm a duelist too! Do you wanna duel?"

"What?" The question tumbles out from Yuuri's lips before he even realizes that he had spoken. He frowns, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at the seemingly innocuous question.

Do you want to duel ?

Yuuri thinks back to all the times the others shrunk away from him in fear, all the looks of horrified anticipation they shot him when they thought he wasn't looking. No one would so much as talk to him, let alone offer themselves up to feel his wrath. And here he is, some new kid , marching up to him without a care in the world, asking him if he wanted to duel. Yuuri doesn't know if he ought to laugh or pity the fool.

"But you don't have a duel disk," he points out instead. "It won't be a serious duel without one."

"Says who?" the boy shoots back, scowling as he tightens his grip on his cards as offense flickers across his face. "I'm always serious when I duel!" But then his face relaxes back into an easy grin. "You won't know until you try. And I'm pretty strong, you know! Unless you don't know how to duel without a duel disk? I can teach you if you want."

Yuuri just stares, dumbfounded at the sheer audacity before shaking his head. There is only one explanation he can come up with. This kid is an idiot. "Fine," he says loftily. He pulls his deck out from its holder to avoid the insulting insinuation that he needed him to teach him. "Just don't start crying when I beat you."

For some reason that only makes this strange creature grin. "Someone's gonna be crying and it ain't gonna be me," he laughs, but what makes it stranger is that Yuuri doesn't detect anything malicious about it. Another first. He's too stunned to react when the kid suddenly reaches out a grubby hand and grabs his fingers and drags him over to a wide tree stump by the side of the path.

Yuuri shakes his hand away as soon as he remembers how to react again. To his utter disgust, his hand was sticky. He wipes his palm on his trouser leg and glares with menace as he shuffles his deck. He'll make this idiot regret waking up in his flowers.

Completely unaware of his thoughts, the dumb blond is still beaming at him. "I'll go first!" he says. "I normal summon **Speedroid・Horse Stilts** which means I get to special another Speedroid monster from my hand. I can't attack this turn, but that's okay since it's the first turn so I can't attack anyway! I'll special summon the tuner monster, **Three Eyed Dice**! Next, I'll set two cards and end my turn."

"Let's end this quickly. I draw," Yuuri says as he fans out his hand, intent on giving this kid the beating of his life. Then they'll see if he'll dare to act so… so friendly with him. "I'll start by summoning **Predator Plants・Ophrys Scorpio** ! This lets me send a monster from my hand to my graveyard to summon **Predator Plants・Lilyzard** from my deck!" A slow grin starts to spread on his face as he gazes down at the fusion spell in his hand. "And next, I'll activate Yuugou to fuse my monsters together! Appear-"

"Ehhh?! What did you just call me?"

"- **Starve Venom Fusion Dragon**!" Yuuri's grin turns almost maniacal as his ace monster arrives. The poison-fanged dragon who made his opponents wet themselves with fear. The only pity is that some of the effect is diminished without solid vision. The boy seems to be frozen in shock, jaw slack as he stares down at Starve Venom like he can't believe his eyes. But Yuuri isn't kind enough to let him get his bearings. "Now attack Three-Eyed Dice!"

But against all expectations, the boy grins back.

"I activate Urgent Tuning!" he exclaims, those strange blue eyes bright with triumph. "This lets me Synchro Summon during the battle phase! I tune Three Eyed Dice (Lvl 3) to Horse Stilts (Lvl 4)! Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings, and strike down your enemies at the speed of light! Synchro Summon! Appear now! **Clear Wing Synchro Dragon**!"

Yuuri nearly drops his cards in shock when the strange blond boy suddenly performs a monster summoning that Yuuri had never even heard of. "How did you do that?!" he demands, taking a step forward. "What's a Synchro Summon? There wasn't anything like that in the textbooks!"

"You first!" the boy retorts, sounding far too carefree for Yuuri's liking. "What's that weird thing you just did to get that dragon out? Were you cheating?"

"Was not!" Yuuri grits out before getting ahold of himself. "If anyone's cheating, you are. That was a Fusion summoning! Everyone knows that."

"Stop calling me Fusion!" The boy stamps his feet and screws up his face. "And everyone knows about Synchro summoning! Even a kid like me knows that!"

"Well- Well your dragon's attack is still lower!" Yuuri glares. "Starve Venom, attack!"

"Not anymore, it's not! I activate Burning Sonic! Now your dragon's attack is negated and Clear Wing gains 500 attack points! Which means it's at… um… 3, 4, 5… 2900 attack points!"

"3000 attack!" Yuuri hisses, infuriated.

"Oh right! 3000 attack points!" The kid nods smugly and crosses his arms. "That's even higher! So there!"

Yuuri grits his teeth and places a few more set cards, his face slowly turning red from being bested, even if it was just one round. He'll just have to end it next turn

However, this seemingly airheaded kid counters strategy after strategy, those luminous eyes shining with glee as he surprises him over and over. Neither of them gave an inch, lifepoints whittled away bit by bit at every turn. As soon as Yuuri thought he had the upper hand, this strange boy would do something completely unexpected. It was so annoying, like a gnat buzzing around his face that he can't seem to swat away. Yuuri should be doing so much better than this! He had never had this much trouble winning before!

But somewhere between them trading blows, something in Yuuri changes. He starts to look forward to the other boy's next turn, his heart pounding in his ears as his eyes dart around his cards. Strategies forming rapidly in his mind that he considers and discards and refines. He's never had to think so hard. Never had a duel which he couldn't clearly see the outcome of. It lasts for what seems like hours, stuck in an endless stalemate until their decks were nearly all used up.

Despite everything his appearance screamed, the boy was clearly some kind of idiotic genius when it came to duels. His duel made absolutely no sense; some of his strategies were so well planned that even Yuuri thought they were beautiful, but then, he would do something completely inane like betting the final outcome of his fate on the roll of a dice .

"You're ridiculous," Yuuri tells him. "There's no way you can know what you're going to roll! If you don't get an even number, Clear Wing's going to be destroyed!"

"But if it lands on even, Clear Wing will get another 1000 attack which means I win! That's why dueling is so much fun, right?" he replies with another one of those infectiously careless laughs. "Wouldn't it be boring if you know exactly how everything's gonna end?"

"Fun?" Yuuri echoes, staring at him disbelievingly. "What's fun if you lose?!" But all the same his eyes are glued to the dice as it clatters to the makeshift table, his heart in his throat as a thrill unlike any other fills him. But something goes wrong; the dice must have hit the wood at an odd angle because it careens off the stump and into the grass.

"Ah, crud!" the boy exclaims before getting on his hands and knees to search for it, leaving Yuuri with a complicated expression on his face. Much of the tension had broken but Yuuri's heart is still pounding a mile a minute. His chest is heaving like he's run a marathon and his jaw hurts and it's only when he reaches up to touch his cheeks that he discovers that he's grinning like a fool.

He was enjoying it, Yuuri realizes. He had enjoyed it like he never had before; throwing himself into the duel against someone he could call a rival with everything he had. And he didn't want it to stop.

"Found it!" A triumphant shout pulls him out of his musings and he turns to see the boy holding up a clenched fist. "Sorry 'bout that. I'll throw it again."

"No," Yuuri cuts in, surprising even himself when he reaches across to grab his fist.

The kid blinks. "Huh?"

Yuuri shakes his head before bursting into a carefree laughter that he can't seem to stop. Now it's the blond boy's turn to stare at him like he's an alien as he struggles to catch his breath. "No," he repeats with mock sternness. "You're not allowed to roll twice. That's against the rules."

"Ehhh?" the kid exclaims, dismayed. "But how're we supposed to know what it landed on?"

"Isn't that why dueling is so much fun?" Yuuri can't help but laugh at the look on his face as he throws his own words back. "Not knowing what the outcome is? Well. Let's just call it a draw for now."

"Whaat?! But that's not fair! I wanted to know who won!" The kid is practically whining as he shoots affronted glares at him.

Still grinning smugly like the cat that got the cream, Yuuri starts to gather up his cards. "That's too bad. Looks like you're just going to have to duel me again."

The blond kid gapes at him, flabbergasted for a moment before it finally clicks. Then another brilliant grin spreads across his face. "Yeah!" he cheers. "Let's go again… uh?"

"Yuuri," he offers with another smug smile. For some reason, everything feels… brighter. More vivid. Like this ridiculous boy is washing his grey world with colour.

"Gotcha. My name's Yuugo! Duel me again, Yuuri!"

"Eh? Yuugou? You're named after a summoning method?"

"What! No! It's Yuugo. Yuu-go!"

"Isn't it fine, either way?"

"No, it's not!"


	2. Lesson 2

Yuuri wins the next duel but Yuugo immediately demands a rematch and Yuuri is so surprised that he ends up accepting. And then he _loses_.

He stares blankly down at his cards while his opponent jumps for joy, pumping both fists into the air in celebration. This time Yuuri is the one insisting on playing again and Yuugo is only too happy to comply. Yuuri loses that one too but wins the next three and by the time they finally realize it, the sky was already dark and they couldn't see their cards anymore.

"Oh crud! It's this late already?" Yuugo exclaims. Abandoning their match, he clambers up to his feet and brushes the grass stains off his knees. Without daylight, the lush green hedges are transformed into dark, looming structures as the pale moon cast strange, shifting shadows over the meadow.

Yuuri rises as well with an odd pit in his stomach as he watches his expression.

"I gotta go," Yuugo is mumbling, expression torn between panic and reluctance, especially when he glances back down at the half-finished game. "Rin's probably worried about me."

The pit grows and Yuuri finds himself blurting out, "You're leaving?" His voice comes out louder and crosser than he had intended. He's struck by a wave of complicated feelings that pass by too fast for him to identify, leaving him with a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. His lips curl. "But we're not finished yet."

He had never had fun like this before where the hours ticked by like seconds and the sky changed without his notice. It was wondrous and magical and ended all too fast, like a spell lifting at the stroke of midnight and leaving everything as it were. He's seized with an urge to reach out and grab onto the sticky little hand that had filled him with disgust just hours before and hold on tight so that the other boy wouldn't be able to go away.

"I'll come right back!" Yuugo exclaims, interrupting the negative turn to his thoughts so swiftly that Yuuri almost believed he had read his mind. "Promise. I'll come looking for you first thing tomorrow and I'll bring Rin too!" He grins easily, the slightly dopey expression without a trace of guile but Yuuri still isn't at all mollified.

Perhaps it's irrational but Yuuri can't help but doubt this airy promise of tomorrow. What if the moment he looks away, this strange, ridiculous child will disappear just as suddenly as he had appeared? How can Yuuri be sure that the other children wouldn't poison him against Yuuri? How does he know that Yuugo won't decide he would rather spend his time with someone else? And then, there's that other name again. Rin, Rin, Rin.

"What's a Rin?" he asks impatiently, arms crossed over his chest as he makes his displeasure clear.

He has a feeling he won't like the answer and he's proven right when Yuugo replies, "Rin's my friend! We live at the facility together."

Yuuri's expression closes off until his face could be carved from granite. Once again, he experiences a surge of irritation at the boy who dared to barge into his world and fill it with laughter and smiles and think he can just wander right out of it again? If that is how it's going to be then he would rather they never met!

"Fine then," he says heatedly, a dull, angry flush rising up into his cheeks. "Go back to _Rin_."

Yuuri tells himself he doesn't care when Yuugo blinks up at him, startled at the sudden vehemence in his tone. He doesn't. Because he's almost certain the other boy isn't coming back. No one else ever does.

"Um. Okay?" Yuugo says slowly, watching him with bemusement as he goes to collect his deck. Yuuri watches him back, feeling the pit in his stomach grow deeper and emptier with every card that goes back into its holder. Eventually, Yuugo's side of their makeshift field is clear, like every trace of him had been wiped clean. Yuuri can't help but notice how lonely his monsters look, all still lined up and waiting for a duel that isn't going to happen.

"See you tomorrow?" The boy offers him, uncertainty bleeding into his normally sunny face but Yuuri still doesn't care. He goes to collect his cards, lips firmly pressed into a line as he absolutely refuses to return the farewell he hadn't wanted.

He doesn't look up when Yuugo circles around the stump, too busy glaring down at the darkened grass. There is a curious sting behind his eyes and he reaches up to rub it away. He must have gotten dirt in them. He is so focused on ignoring Yuugo that he's completely caught off guard when a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his waist and crushes his face against a bony shoulder.

"What are you doing ?" Yuuri demands, alarmed. He half wonders if he's being attacked but there is no accompanying pain. Frowning, he shoves at his arms but Yuugo only squeezes him harder. It's strange and awkward since Yuugo is all pointy elbows and his breath is making the hairs on the back of his neck stand. "Stop it!"

Yuugo shakes his head and Yuuri winces when he gets a mouthful of blue hair. "Nuh uh! You were doing that frowny thing that Rin does when she's mad. Why are you mad?"

"I'm not!" Yuuri protests, irritated that the other boy' is picking such an inconvenient time to be astute. With a final shove, he finally manages to free himself, sending Yuugo crashing to the ground with a satisfying yelp. His hands go to his hips as he glares down at him but the look of hurt flashing across Yuugo's face does little to make him feel better.

"See, you are mad!" Yuugo cries, scampering back onto his feet as the hurt transforms into indignance. "Are you mad because we didn't finish the duel! I said I was gonna come back!"

"Well, I don't believe you!" Both of them start and Yuuri isn't sure which of them is more surprised at his outburst.

Yuugo blinks several times before realization slowly dawned chasing away the clouds over his face clear. Then, he's smiling so brightly that Yuuri almost thought the sun had returned. "Oh, so that's why you're so mad. But I said I promised, didn't I? A real duelist always keeps his promises!" Before Yuuri can say something cold and derisive, Yuugo is in his face again and holding out a fist with his pinky outstretched. He stares at it blankly until the other boy gets impatient and grabs his hand and links their fingers together.

"Now what are you doing?" Too baffled to even stay angry, Yuuri tries to pull back his hand but Yuugo holds on with the same kind of stubbornness that had bullied Yuuri into dueling him in the first place.

"It's a pinky promise," he says with an almost comical graveness. "If you break a pinky promise, you have to swallow a thousand needles and then your pinky gets cut off."

Even Yuuri can't help but make a face at the imagery. But strangely enough, the knot in his stomach starts to unravel. "Really?" he says, skepticism wavering in the wake of Yuugo's sincerity. "Do you pinky promise you'll come back? You won't run away from me? Ever?"

"I do!" Yuugo declares without a single trace of hesitation. "I promise I'll come right back!"

"Hmph." Yuuri leans over, lips pressed into a thin line as he glares into the other boy's eyes as if searching for falsehoods. After a lengthy pause, the corners of his mouth curls up. His chest feels… fuller. Like some of the gnawing emptiness in his heart had finally gone away. And all because of this ridiculous child. But he still isn't entirely satisfied yet. Yuuri quickly schools his smile back into a frown as he presses further. "And you promise you won't be scared of me no matter what the other children say?"

"I promise!"

"And you'll do everything I tell you to?"

"I promise- Hey ! You… you tricked me!"

Yuuri is too busy cackling at Yuugo's indignant expression and he's still laughing even as he is tackled to the ground. He lands on his back with a furious Yuugo sitting on his chest and he thinks it's hilarious .

"A promise is a promise," he says gleefully as Yuugo growls.

"That's not fair!" he cries. "That last one doesn't count."

"You're the one who said a duelist always keeps his promises."

"But-! You-! Gaah!" Yuuri watches in fascination as the other boy turns red before finally admitting defeat and throwing his hands up. "You're so mean!"

"You're just too easy to tease."

"Am not!"

Yuugo looks so funny when he's angry; those too big eyes narrowed as he tries to look intimidating and his round cheeks are all puffed up like a baby hedgehog. It makes Yuuri want to poke them again. So he does.

"What was that for?!" Yuugo yelps as he scrambles off him, both hands pressed against his face protectively.

Yuuri smiles serenely as he gets up as well. His back is covered in grass stains but he's in far too good a mood to care. "How about this," he says magnanimously. "You do me three favours and then I'll let you off the hook. Sound fair?"

Yuugo sputters as his mouth works in soundness outrage. After several long seconds of visible deliberation, he crosses his arms over his chest with a huff. "... Just three , OK?" he huffs.

"Deal," Yuuri says putting his hands together over his mouth so Yuugo can't see the gleeful look on his face. He really is too easy. Still smiling, he pivots on the spot and quickly packs up his deck with a much better mood than before. He pauses and cocks a hand on his hip. "Well, what are you waiting for? Didn't you say you wanted to get back?"

"Huh?" Yuugo blurts out, blinking rapidly before his clueless expression clears. "Oh, right! Rin!"

Once Yuuri is satisfied that he's trailing him behind like a lost puppy, he makes his way back to the path. It's child's play for him to navigate the winding hedges in the dark; this is his garden after all. He knows every bush, every twist in the path, every pebble. The garden is a veritable maze and he's rather impressed that Yuugo had made it so deep into it all on his own. Although, he doesn't seem to be nearly as good finding his way back. Yuuri is torn between rolling his eyes and snickering as he hears the other boy yelping and cursing as he stumbles into shrubberies and gets tangled in ivy with a clumsiness that is rather impressive on its own.

Annoyance wins out and Yuuri stops, groping around in the dark until his grabs hold of his hand. "Keep up, Yuugou," he says, shaking his head. "Before you ruin any more of my plants."

"It's Yuugo!" Comes the dismayed complaint, but Yuuri is quietly pleased when Yuugo doesn't shake him off. Instead, he squeezes back, holding on just a bit too tight like he's afraid of being left behind. Yuugo's hand rough and callused with uneven, bitten-off nails and his palms are still a bit sticky, but Yuuri doesn't mind it too much anymore. Despite the chill of the evening air, Yuuri feels as warm as ever with that little hand clasped tightly in his.

It's nice, he thinks, to have someone walking with him for a change. There's something oddly comforting about having a second set of footfalls echoing behind his. Even if his shadow is loud and insists on bumping into him every other step.

"Ouch! How can you see where you're going? It's so dark!"

"That's because you're not paying enough attention! I'm over here."

"Am too paying attention! I just can't see nothing."

"It's 'anything', not 'nothing'. And you don't need to see, you just need to pay attention to where I'm walking and stop stepping on me!"

"How am I supposed to do that if I can't see?!"

"Stop complaining, or I'll let go!"

"What? No! You can't!"

Eventually, the pair of them finally make their way through the hedges and Yuuri breathes a sigh at the sight of the grey castle walls. His stomach twists as a wave of melancholy washes over him.

"You can find your way back from here, right?" he says, unable to keep the reluctance from his voice despite his best efforts to sound casual. "If I don't see you back here tomorrow, I'm going to find you and make you swallow a thousand needles and I'm going to be keeping count ." Steeling himself, he lets Yuugo's hand drop and starts to walk back to his room. Only to be jerked back when Yuugo suddenly grabs onto him with both hands. Now what?

But when he turns to tell him off, he's momentarily taken aback when he sees the look on Yuugo's face.

"Wait." Yuugo swallows audibly, those luminous blue eyes brimming with fear and confusion. "This… This isn't right. I don't recognize anything. There's supposed to be a huge tower right over there! For the TOPs."

Puzzled, Yuuri frowns back at him. "What are you talking about? This is how this place has always looked. This is the Academia, remember?"

"Aca-de-mia?" Yuugo asks blankly. "What's that?"

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

For a moment, the two of them simply stare at each other, with Yuugo still awkwardly holding onto Yuuri's hand like a lifeline.

"What do you mean, 'what's Academia?" Yuuri says crossly. "You don't just show up here and not know about it!"

"I live in the Commons! I don't know any Academia!" Yuugo argues back just as stubbornly.

"Look," Yuuri says with a huff and an eye roll, dragging him up a flight of stairs until they're overlooking the courtyard. "Does anything look familiar now?"

Yuugo stares quietly. "No," he says in a tiny, trembling voice. "Nothing looks familiar. Yuuri, I think… I think I'm lost."

"Lost?" Yuuri echoes, staring at the ridiculous child like he had grown another head.

No one just shows up at Academia. All children over the age of eight have to attend and the only way onto the island is to get on a ship. There's simply no way someone could end up here entirely by accident. He frowns harder. The other boy doesn't look like he's clever enough to be making it all up. So how did he get into his garden? It's not like he really could have just fallen down a rabbit hole!

Behind him, Yuugo hiccups, dragging Yuuri out of his thoughts.

"How… How am I gonna get home?" he asks, sounding absolutely miserable as he lets out a pathetic sniffle. To Yuuri's alarm, the other boy's lip starts to tremble.

"Are you… are you crying?" he demands, appalled.

"'M not crying," Yuugo denies thickly, rubbing at his eyes on the back of his hand. "'M not a baby. And boys don't cry."

"You _are_ crying," Yuuri tells him and crosses his arms in dismay. He bites his lips, agitated when he realizes that he's at a complete loss as to how to stop it. While he's had plenty of experience making other little boys and girls run away from him crying, he doesn't know how to get them to stop.

Or maybe he does? Yuuri thinks back to the burning sensation behind his eyes and the way Yuugo had chased it away with his little hands and bony elbows. Huffing again, he steps back over to him and throws his arms awkwardly around his shoulders. Yuugo smells like grass and earth and he's much, much smaller than he looks under his oversized t-shirt. But he's warm and solid and Yuuri finds that he doesn't mind it at all.

"Stop being a baby," he scolds. "You'll sleep over in my room and tomorrow we'll ask the Professor where you live. Okay?"

Yuugo sniffles into his neck and wraps his arms around him too and Yuuri takes it as a sign that it's working. "What's a Pro-fess-or?"

"He's one of the adults. Everyone has to listen to him. He'll know how to get you home."

"...'Kay," Yuugo finally says, hiccupping quietly as he gives his eyes one last rub.

"You're not going to keep crying, right?"

"Said I wasn't crying."

"You were."

"Wasn't!" Yuugo insists, even though his puffy eyes and red nose say otherwise but Yuuri lets it go since the sniffling seems to be subsiding.

Yuuri carefully unwinds his arms from the other boy's scrawny shoulders and clears his throat. "Okay, now follow me. And be quiet. We're not supposed to be out this late." Although Yuuri's teachers generally tend to let Yuuri do as he liked, being an honour student and all, he still had to follow a curfew like everyone else, as much as he would rather sleep in his garden.

Yuugo trails after him, still rubbing his eyes. "I'm not supposed to be out this late either. Rin's gonna be super mad and Matron's gonna send me to bed without supper."

Rin . Yuuri scowls and speeds up. "Hmph. Here, you'd be lucky if our teachers don't lock you up in the dungeons."

"Dungeons?!" Yuugo gasps and Yuuri immediately claps a hand over his mouth because apparently, his idea of being quiet was yelling in a stage whisper.

"Shush!" he scolds. "I said you have to be _quiet_. Do you want them to catch us?" Yuugo nods furiously and this time mimes pulling a zipper over his mouth.

But it's too late because that's exactly when a long shadow falls over them.

" _Mamma mia_! Just what are you doing out here this late, _Señor_ Yuuri?"


End file.
